Blog is all about words because they matter, they influence, they entertain and when you put them down on a page in a meaningful order, they acquire permanence. Contained here are a bunch of written words in the form of book reviews, magazine and web article links & summaries and other stuff I like to write about. Currently aiming to read and write on two books a month.

Saturday, October 01, 2011

There's been a few different feature stories from Sport Illustrated lately with really solid writing on interesting topics.

For the September 12 issue, S.L. Price wrote "The House Of Dream Chasers" on TCU football coach Gary Patterson. While Patterson's tale was an interesting one and told well as Price stories inevitably are, what stood out from the piece was the author's connection to the coach. The sub-heading to the story alludes to the time spent living in the small college town of Davis, CA and it was fascinating reading about how both the author and subject were then living lean and starting out in their desired careers.

"Twenty-five years ago TCU coach Gary Patterson was a tumbleweed assistant clinging to a Division II job. No one expected he would rise to the top of his profession—not even the author, who lived with him then."

Granted, I wasn't Bears and Walter Payton fan, but it's remarkable to me the flack that Pearlman has taken about the contents of the book. Even in this excerpt (which is of course just a portion of the book), Payton isn't portrayed as a terrible guy... just a flawed individual who probably became more flawed after leaving the game that defined him. For someone to think any favorite athlete infallible and then criticize those who would reveal him as less than perfect just doesn't make sense.

Smith writes very well pieces with a strong emotional hook and in describing specific fans and their relationship with the team, he's definitely in his element as a writer. Pretty compelling reading...